‘The Threat Is Escalating’: An Expert on Right-Wing Extremists Offers a Warning

Kathleen Belew has studied white supremacy and paramilitary groups for years. She is 'not all all sure [Trump] could unring that bell.' If you have trouble reading this message, view it in a browser.       Join Our Club. We'll Send You Something in the Mail. (It's a Magazine.)   But it's not just a magazine. With a membership to Esquire Select, the aforementioned club, you get unlimited access to Esquire.com, including The Politics Blog with Charles P. Pierce. You get a monthly discount to some of our editors' favorite brands. You get a members-only, weekly newsletter highlighting the best of Esquire right now. And, if you act fast, there might even be a free gift in it for you. Read More           An Expert on Right Wing Extremist Groups Warns 'The Threat Is Escalating'   Politics Editor Jack Holmes spoke with Kathleen Belew, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, about the growing threat of far-right paramilitary violence as the election approaches and the President of the United States seems to do everything except try to bring down the temperature. Along the way, Belew traces the movement's development from Waco, in 1993, to the president's message from the debate stage in September to the Proud Boys, one of the more prominent paramilitary outfits of the moment. Here, Belew offers a warning that the president may not have the power to "unring that bell" even if he wanted to, because these groups are defined, perhaps above all, by their opportunism. Read More           18 Winter Vests That'll Help You Conquer the Cold in Style   In recent years the well-meaning vest—through no fault of its own—hasn't always benefited from the most positive of associations. In the popular imagination, the style's sleek, fleecy variation has become instant shorthand for a certain type of dreaded Banker Bro—the dead-eyed, heavily-moussed shell of a man pounding away furiously on his too-large iPhone while he strides determinedly out of his local salad spot. (So much so, in fact, that Patagonia made headlines last year when it announced it'd be assessing the corporate clients it partners with on its famous fleeces more selectively going forward.) It's truly a modern-day miracle that the vest has any amount of public goodwill left to fall back on after the way Wall Street sullied its reputation, but then again, the style's always been a little miraculous. Don't let the connotation stop you from making the most of it—here are 18 Esquire-approved vests to shop right now. Read More           Personal Style Is Thriving. Nature Is Healing. These Guys Are Proof.   Photographer Bill Gentle—the New York-based Brit who shot this story for our October/November issue—built a successful career over the last 12 years from the germ of an idea that went on to influence the whole men's style scene. "I was trying to be a fashion photographer and it wasn't going so well," he explains. "Then I moved into an apartment in Williamsburg with a big backyard and I thought I'd set myself the challenge of shooting friends and people I met, just within the confines of my backyard. Frankly it got kind of boring after about three shoots, so I migrated to shooting in their backyards and soon I was shooting all over the place." That's the origin story of Backyard Bill, the influential style blog that Gentle launched in 2008. The idea was to capture and promote a new language that showed style could be personal and original, miles away from the unreality of a fashion runway. "It was actually about people in their own clothes," he says. "And honestly, I think we're still feeling the effects of that whole movement." For Esquire, that approach translated to Gentle traveling from garages to driveways to, yes, backyards all around New York over the course of a week, shooting the 10 style-savvy men featured in this profile. But despite the new realities of 2020, it felt to Gentle like retracing his first steps in the world of photography. Because as much as things change, the core values are the same. It's a style POV—and a state of mind—we would all do well to emulate. Read More           Miley Cyrus Is Giving a Master Class in Cover Songs   Throughout quarantine, Miley Cyrus has been spending her free time adding to her massive catalog of fantastic cover songs. This weekend, during NIVA's virtual Save Our Stages Fest, she performed at Hollywood's Whisky a Go-Go, where she covered the Cranberries' "Zombie" and the Cure's "Boys Don't Cry." Anyone who has attempted to sing "Zombie" at karaoke knows that it is a particularly difficult song to sing. But Miley rips through the track, never shying away from those heys and ohs. She attacks them directly with a force that makes me wish she'd just start a rock band already. But it also requires the dexterity to hit the dynamics between the chorus and the softer intro, which Miley does while also hitting a pretty cool harmony in the bridge. Esquire Culture Editor Matt Miller reflects on the pop star's incredible run of cover song glory, and explains why her rendition of 'Zombie' is a can't-miss. Read More           This Is the Finest, Most Humane Piece of Political Journalism in Years   Stephanie McCrummen, a writer for the Washington Post, has produced the finest, most humane piece of political journalism in years. In it, you will find almost everything that's sour and wrong about American politics, including a few sour and wrong elements that may have eluded you. The subject is Kevin Van Ausdal, a good-hearted local neurosurgeon from northwest Georgia who felt it his duty to run as a Democratic alternative to Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon devotee and gun-fetishing Republican who, absent the sudden growth of a conscience or the intervention of a more merciful God, is going to be representing the 14th Congressional District of Georgia this time next year. Now, as McCrummen details, Van Ausdal is back living in his parents' basement in Indiana, his marriage gone to sticks and splinters and his life a shambles while Greene is on a glide path to her new job making Louie Gohmert look sane. All of the moaning about civility in our politics has a dangerous flip side. This story is a civics lesson taught by Edgar Allan Poe. Here, Charles P. Pierce offers praise, and points out the most jarring sections of the piece. Read More         Read More on Esquire.com       Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019